Overlaps
A common issue in the Cosmic Academy is not having a teacher of your specific kinesis available. Another is that you want to control something which isn't entirely in the domain of your kinesis. Fear not! If the group of kineses are a group of circles comprising one huge Venn Diagram, then overlaps are the abilities that lie in the section that exist in two. Combine the power of your normal kinesis with another one! Overlaps are less clearly-defined than normal kinesis abilities since we want to encourage creativity in roleplayers in coming up with ways their power might "cross over" with that of another. Learning an overlap is a simple process. You must be of one kinesis, and have a lesson under a teacher of another kinesis. This teacher will help you discover an ability which lies somewhere between your two powers. This can also be done by studying under a teacher of your own kinesis who themselves has experience in the overlap. Most professors do, since they've quite a bit of experience with it. Overlaps can be either entirely new abilities, or a way to upgrade your current abilities with the incorporation of new powers. One way overlaps can work is gaining the ability to control something which is "inbetween" your kinesis and the other. Keep in mind that there may be multiple aspects in this "inbetween" area. Most of them can be learned from both ends. A student of Kinesis 1 can learn from a professor of Kinesis 2 to control the inbetween of 1&2, and it can also be learned by a student of Kinesis 2 trained by a professor of Kinesis 1. Here are some examples: * An Earth controller learning from a Fire professor how to create spikes from the ground made of lava instead of ordinary rock or metal. This is essentially an upgrade to the Earth controller's normal ability, and a Fire controller learning some lava ability from an Earth professor would probably use it differently, such as by replacing a normal cylindrical blast of fire with one of lava instead. This could be considered an alternative option or even an upgrade to a fire controller's normal blast. * A lightning controller might study under an Earth professor and learn the art of electromagnetism. This could allow for entirely new abilities rather than upgrades, such as controlling metal projectiles using electromagnetism. * Fire/Air can result in the control of smoke! * A common choice is Air/Water to get Cloud! Or, if you want to sacrifice the CC and utility of water for pure damage, try Air/Lightning to get Storm. The other way overlaps work is less obvious, but more common. Using the essence of another kinesis to improve the potential of your own. This will not give you direct control over the other kinesis; your own kinesis is a medium for some aspect of the kinesis you intend to overlap with. A perfect example is that a water controller, with training from a fire professor, would learn how to make their water boil, letting it do additional burn damage when used as an attack. Unlike controlling inbetweens, incorporating the essence of another controller is usually a one-way process. A fire controller cannot be taught how to control boiling water, but they could learn how to use the essence of water in their fire, such as by learning how to create a swirling flood of fire that flows like water! Here are some more ways overlaps of this type can happen. Be creative. You can be any kinesis and overlap with any other kinesis. These are just some examples; the possibilities are very open, like the unique abilities you might give your character just from their base kinesis. * Start with Blood and add Lightning to influence the brain's neural signals through the body. A sample ability: charge up with red lightning before being able to dash forward with amazing speed! * Start with Lightning and overlap with Blood to learn to restart people's hearts with an electric shock! WIth enough training, maybe even your own to give yourself a one-time revive in a fight. * A Dark controller could overlap into Sand to learn to temporarily convert part of their body into shadow and let it absorb a projectile without any damage. * A Sand controller could overlap into Dark to use unholy sand. Perhaps if arranged properly, it can act as a way to create a sigil for some unholy spell? * A Dark controller could overlap into Poison to learn to infect shadow energy into an enemy's wound, causing a negative effect. * A Poison controller could overlap into Dark to incorporate unholy power into their poisons for terrifying effects. * A Network controller could overlap with Fire to successfully add mini flamethrowers to their nanobots. In a cloud, this could be a spontaneous burst of fire. * A Fire controller could overlap with Network to learn to create their own volleys of lasers, made of flame instead of energized light. (Not all overlaps with Network have to be technological! They can just be with their general theme of grids and lasers.) * A Fire controller could overlap with Paper to learn how to create a battlefield of fire and brimstone. * A Paper controller would overlap with Fire to be able to create paper airplanes that explode when striking something. Recreate 9/11! * Most kineses can overlap in many ways with either Light or Dark to gain access to holy or unholy abilities. * Every combination is possible, and there can be more than one style within a given overlap! A few things to note. THIS DOES NOT GIVE YOU ACCESS TO THE FULL ARSENAL OF ANOTHER KINESIS AND DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE SEVERAL KINESES. ''You cannot be a fire controller, overlap with air, and then use pure air abilities. It must be control of something between them such as smoke, or it has to be using the essence of air to increase the potential of the fire itself. Similarly, a Fire controller could overlap into air and overlap into water, but could never use pure air, pure water or overlapped air/water abilities. Their powers must be sourced in their actual kinesis. Overlaps can sound fancy, but when considering the fastest way to get better, usually studying under a professor of your own kinesis is better. Sure, if you're a Blood controller it can be cool to learn how to dash at high speeds, but usually the best option is increasing your own power of pure Blood to get stronger. If you must learn that ability, talk to your Blood professor, who will likely have that overlap themself. ''Overlaps are mostly an option for people who want to specialize in an element that's not part of the kinesis system, or cannot currently learn under a professor of their kinesis. ''The analogy one can use is that you're a ninja who wants to train, but the only person around willing to train you is a professional magician. Perhaps he can't teach you how to improve in swordfighting or assassination, but he can certainly help in teaching you how to disappear in a puff of smoke. It's nothing an experienced ninja teacher couldn't teach you, but sometimes you have to make do. One should also note that many of these things are indeed possible under a professor of your own kinesis, as long as that professor has overlapped themselves. Being an experienced professor, it's likely they have. As a fire controller who wants to overlap into Earth, you could learn something from the overlap from a fire professor who themselves has an overlap into Earth. Therefore, don't feel like So, you don't technically need a professor of the kinesis you want to overlap into. You can also learn the overlap if you study under a professor of your own kinesis who has the overlap. I just want to emphasise that point. Example Overlap for Every Kinesis Combination This will be a large project, and possibly not end up completed. The following is an in-progress list. The first one is your base kinesis, and the second one is the kinesis that you're overlapping into. Note, again, that a lot of these things can be learned by studying a professor of your own kinesis. But if there's none available, these are some specific, specialized things that another teacher can teach you. '''Lightning' /Fire: Between lightning and fire lies control of plasma. /Air: Storm! Directly control storm thunderclouds to control vicious storms. These can deal incredible damage. /Water: Learn to use particles of water in the air as a conductor, allowing your lightning to have extra range. /Earth: Magnetism! Make of it what you will. /Light: Holy lightning is certainly a possibility, an electrified smite originating from divine judgement. /Dark: As is unholy lightning, a strike of purple energy fueled by malevolence. /Blood: As you fall in battle, let electricity surge through to your heart, restarting it and resurrecting you with with low HP! Once per fight. /Poison: Create a metallic serum which can be injected into an enemy mid-battle. It will raise their conductivity and thus make your lightning deal additional damage to them. /Sand: Just as sand controllers can melt into a solid surface and travel through it very fast, a lightning controller can learn to turn into raw elemental lightning and bolt through a solid surface, then emerge. /Ink: Your bolts of lightning can stay stained onto existence. You can cause lightning bolts to not vanish, instead staying in place as a completely-frozen bolt that explodes in a burst of electricity when something touches it. /Fabric: Learn to form a lightning "shell" over yourself, barely far enough to not touch you. Those who hit you with melee attacks will take damage from the shock! /Paper: Control your lightning with more precision and for longer periods of time, even able to shape more complex shapes and forms out of it. /Network: Learn to use your lightning with enough precision to have a lesser control over electronics! /Grave: With a great deal of practice, you can learn to use lightning to restart your own heart! Treat this as a one-time revival ability during a fight that brings you back from defeat, though still at low HP due to your wounds. /Gravity: Due to the nature of what gravity and electricity really are, I'd suggest this to be a form of ultimate ability for a lightning user, such as generating so much intense lightning in one small orb that it can't sustain its size and bursts out as an omnidirectional lightning blast. /Sound: Send pulses of lightning through your opponent's body with melee strikes just as a sound controller does with vibrations. /Bone: Add more direct physical force into your lightning strikes, cracking the bones of those you strike, adding the ability to cripple people with your lightning strikes. /Psionic: The electricity in your lightning can mess up the neural signals in the targets' brain, forcing them to be totally disoriented for a short time. /Chocolate: E N E R G Y B A R S /Plant: Collect the seeds of buzz traries, a rare plant in the garden, and mash them into a paste which increase the ion diffusion rate across the cell membranes of neurons. Injest it to gain increased damage with your lightning! /Edge: Infuse your bolts with sharpness, causing them to stab through enemies for damage before shocking them. /Friction: Charge up static energy just by moving. At full charge, unleash it for an extra-powered lightning blast! /Time: By speeding up the electrical signals in the brain, you can gain faster perception and thus better dodging ability! /Oil: Learn how to create your very own lightning golems! Fire /Lightning: Between lightning and fire lies control of plasma. /Air: Increase the efficiency with which your fire consumes oxygen, making it harder to put out! /Water: By pulling heat from things to power your fire, you can freeze them! You just don't have the ability to be an icebender like a water user. /Earth: Lava! /Light: Add the Holy modifier to your blazes! Burn your foes with righteous heavenly fire! /Dark: Add the Unholy modifier to your blazes! Burn your foes with horrifying hellfire! /Blood: Learn to use fire to cauterize, preventing wounds from bleeding and even healing them. /Poison: Your fires give off extra-toxic smoke, poisoning foes. /Sand: Control glass! /Ink: Ink contains the essence of permanence, and can be used as napalm to keep your fires burning longer. /Paper: Paper is excellent at creating new battlefields out of paper. You can learn to do the same with fire! Turn this place into a burning hell! /Fabric: Study the art of strings and create strings of fire - Long, agile, whiplike. /Network: Study the inner workings of nanobots and employ their own method of creating lasers, substituting light for very dense heat/fire. /Grave: Employ spiritfire to burn your foe's soul as well! /Gravity: Use your fire as a propulsion system! Learn to fly! /Sound: You have the Voice of Fire! Set things ablaze just by commanding them to! /Bone: Let your hair turn to fire, or extend your hands to become claws of fire! /Psionic: Combustion! Cause things to spontaneously explode. /Chocolate: I think controlling Hot Chocolate is the obvious overlap here. /Plant: Draw specifically on the fires of the ever-burning bonfire. Having been stoked for so long, and by a crusader, it deals more damage than other fire. /Edge: Use slashing arcs of fire that both cut and set fire to foes! /Friction: Generate heat just through movement. Once you've built up a full charge, unleash it in a devastating fire blast! /Time: You can speed up the rate of burning for your fires. The end result is that any burning effects on an enemy which do damage over time can instead do all their damage at once! /Oil: Don't tell me you can't think of ways to use flammable substances with your flames. Air /Lightning: Storm! Directly control storm thunderclouds to control vicious storms. These can deal incredible damage. /Fire: Directly control smoke like one would control air! /Water: Cloud! Control clouds to unleash great downpours. These deal less damage than a storm, but the water can also be used to slow them down and to heal yourself. /Earth: Master control of dust, tiny particles of earth swept up in the wind! But not sand, uh, for some reason. /Light: Through the wind, the divine execute their will. Add the holy modifier to your wind attacks! /Dark: Through the wind, the demonic whisper. Add the unholy modifier to your wind attacks! /Blood: Absorbing oxygen directly to your blood means you don't really need to breathe in the case that you're choked or have a slashed throat. /Poison: Control clouds of generic damaging poison. You'll need to have the poison on you, not produce it. /Sand: Incorporate tiny solid particles into your gusts of wind to hinder your opponents' sight! /Ink: Blow pitch black ink into your foe's eyes, blinding them for a short duration! /Paper: Add a slicing quality to your winds, causing them to deal more damage. /Fabric: Use strings for enhanced archery! Combined with a bow, crossbow or other similar weapon, this could have excellent potential. /Network: Wanna control a network of giant fans? /Grave: Control spirit wind, a pure breeze which can restore life as a form of minor healing. /Gravity: Become the master of S U C C /Sound: Force blasts of wind into your foe's ears, popping their eardrums and rendering them deaf. /Bone: Grant yourself more manoeuvrability in the air, making it easier to dodge enemy attacks while in the skies. /Psionic: Control wind with more precision than just blowing on objects from one direction. Cause it to rise up from underneath and move physical objects around as though you had telekinesis! /Chocolate: When under intense stress or psychological torture, surround yourself with a sweet-smelling wind to keep yourself sane. /Plant: Allow dandelion seeds to be swept up in your winds, adding to the ~ a e s t h e t i c ~ of it and therefore increasing grace. If you use wind to increase the speed of something, this will increase it further. /Edge: Cutting winds. Rather than just using blasts of wind, you can use cutting arcs of it! /Friction: Create more air resistance around your foe, causing them to be slowed slightly continuously during the fight! /Time: Increase the speed at which air wears away at things. The best example would be causing your opponent's weapons to rust before their eyes. /Oil: Controlling the gaseous byproducts of burned oil can lead to some toxic attacks. Water /Lightning: Control "bolts" of water, quick jets which pierce and damage enemies. /Fire: Cause your water to boil, making it do burning damage-over-time to enemies! /Air: Cloud! Control clouds to unleash great downpours. These deal less damage than a storm, but the water can also be used to slow them down and to heal yourself. /Earth: Control mud! /Light: Holy water! You focus on the water-y aspect of it, using it as water with the holy modifier. /Dark: Blackwaters. Add the unholy modifier to your water attacks. /Blood: You cannot directly control blood, but due to its water content, you can use some of the power within it. Overlap with blood to learn to use some of your own blood in your next ability, both increasing its damage and doing damage to yourself as a cost. This will obviously make the water red. /Poison: Increase or decrease the PH score of your water, causing it to act as an acid or base and deal damage! /Sand: Control quicksand! /Ink: Learn the Ink controller's art of painting on the world! Your water is much less effective than ink, and you'll only have a few specific things you can learn how to do. /Fabric: You can control fabrics as well, as long as they're soaked. /Paper: Make paper mache armor. Because there is obviously nothing better to make armor out of. /Network: Controlling large amounts of small droplets individually can be harder than controlling one large water mass. A Network controller could properly teach you how to manage ridiculous amounts of tiny things, thus giving you the option for blasts of rain rather than solid torrents. Like bullets! /Grave: Control waters infused with the essence of life, increasing your capability to heal using water. /Gravity: Learn to cover objects in water, then pull the water up to levitate objects! /Sound: You can send enormous vibrations through your floods of water to create massive tidal waves! /Bone: Wanna cripple people? Freeze one of their bones, then shatter the ice. /Psionic: Drain a slight amount of brain fluid from an opponent. Not enough to be lethal in any sense, but certainly disorienting, and can especially mess up spellcasting. /Chocolate: Infuse your water healing with chocolate power, causing them to also apply a speed boost. /Plant: Become attuned with nature, and your healing powers will be increased. /Edge: Increase the sharpness of your water jets and your ice-based abilities for more damage. /Friction: Your water moves with increased brutal force, tearing away at the flesh of those who are pushed back by your water blasts. /Time: A mastery of your ice abilities could allow you to instantly freeze an enemy in an ice prison, reducing them to a total stop. Only sufficient physical exertion can break them free of it. /Oil: Study of hydrophobic materials can help you gain control over the property! Earth /Lightning: Magnetism! Make of it what you will. /Fire: Lava! /Air: Master control of dust, tiny particles of earth swept up in the wind! But not sand, uh, for some reason. /Water: Mud! /Light: Control Sacred Ground for the holy modifier! /Dark: Coal! Stuffed in your stocking! Or just desecrated Earth for the unholy modifier. /Blood: You can force iron out of the haemoglobin in the blood, preventing the blood's ability to take in oxygen. Enemies will slowly begin to suffocate! /Poison: Master the use of toxic metals for your abilities, poisoning enemies if their blood is exposed to it. /Sand: Force your whole body to become rock, making yourself extraordinarily tough! /Ink: Focus on clay and ceramic creations, and harness your creativity! /Fabric: Petrify your clothing for extra tankiness, or specialise in rock/metal armor! /Paper: Learn precision, and the manipulation of thin sheets of metal for more precise creations. You probably won't be able to create a Panzer tank when you start off, but with some training... /Network: You can create works of technology with your Earth creations, though not on the same par as a Network controller. /Grave: Earth controllers are not normally proficient in using their emotions such as anger to fuel additional power for their abilities, but by inviting the spirit of the world itself into your mind, you could harness its anger at its own treatment to do so. /Gravity: You can learn one particular gravity ability: increasing gravity in an area. /Sound: Earthquake specialization! /Bone: Strengthen your bones, increase your tankiness even further! /Psionic: Apply the fortitude of your body to your mind, steeling yourself against fear or other psychological manipulation. /Chocolate: Consume the chocolate. Get your minerals. Heal yourself. /Plant: Learn to heal by absorbing the life essence from soil. /Edge: Extra-sharp rocks for big boi damage! /Friction: Earthquakes can also be forced by the friction of tectonic plates. Combining overlaps in both Sound and Friction could make you a truly deadly force... /Time: Petrification is the process by which organic matter exposed to minerals over a long period is turned into a stony substance. You, however, can do it instantly, and force your foe to be encased in rock. Sufficient strength or force of will can allow them to break free after a short period. /Oil: Perhaps some specific use of petroleum oil drawn up from deep in the Earth? Light /Lightning: Wanna focus on becoming the ultimate speedyboi? This is the overlap for you. /Fire: Add extra searing heat to your light attacks for additional damage! /Air: Increase the power of light from the sun to break through the ozone layer, applying the full power of the sun's light to your foes! /Water: RAINBOW POWAAAHHHH. /Earth: Solidify your light into solid forces, like giant light fists. Who doesn't like giant light fists? /Dark: Controlling light not beyond the visible spectrum can lead to some interesting effects. /Blood: Course holy energy through the bodies of others to allow for amplified healing on them. /Poison: Radiation poisoning is fun! /Sand: Transform into an avatar of pure light, dealing passive radiant damage to foes around you! /Ink: Create runes from holy energy to cast magnificent spells you may not be able to otherwise. /Fabric: You can create invisibility cloaks by enchanting clothes to have light bent around them, making the wearer invisible to the human eye. /Paper: All colours exist because of the light which bounces off its surface, and after practising with white surfaces, you can learn to do so with any of them. Attack foes with a barrage of light from all directions, from everything which has colour! /Network: Laser specialty! /Grave: Your holy judgement damns lesser souls! Your light attacks can directly strike an enemy's spirit. /Gravity: Just as immense objects in space can curve light itself with their gravitational fields, you can learn to cause your lasers to bend, piercing people who might have just barely dodged the straight-line attack otherwise. /Sound: "THE POWER OF THE FLAME COMPELS YOU!" You basically learn Word of Radiance from D&D. /Bone: Light claws! /Psionic: Follow the light of truth. Shield yourself from all fear. /Chocolate: Create an illusion of a wondrous chocolate candy wonderland! /Plant: Photosynthesis allows you to gain energy while in sunlight, causing you to tire much less quickly. /Edge: L I G H T S A B E R S /Friction: Your light causes friction, wearing away at the flesh of those you shine it upon. /Time: For a brief time, speed up your mind and your movements to such an extent that the rest of the world is essentially moving in slow motion, as though you're slowing down time! /Oil: Advanced shaping abilities with light! Dark /Lightning: Control dark energy in the shape of lightning. It's not actual lightning and thus doesn't interact scientifically the way it does, but its sheer speed wi:ll be like a normal dark attack which is very hard to dodge. /Fire: Control dark energy in the shape of fire. It's not actual fire and thus doesn't interact scientifically the way it does, but its burning power will add extra damage-over-time to foes. /Air: Necrotic wind can blow away the soul like dust... /Water: Form material darkness into a liquid form and hurl the sphere at an opponent's face. Let it seep into their lungs; let them choke on the abyss! /Earth: Corrupt the ground itself, sapping life from those who stand upon it. /Light: More direct control of shadows could have interest effects. Try forcing an opponent's shadow to reach up and grab their arms, restraining them. /Blood: Darkness-enhanced blood could place a curse on any foes it spills upon, applying a debuff of some sort. /Poison: Infuse dark matter into an opponent which negatively reacts with their blood for constant damage. /Sand: Turn yourself into a being of pure shadow for a limited time, allowing you to pass through physical surfaces and even strikes. /Ink: Use the artist's dreams with a mad twist! Specialise in the use of extra shadow clones from yourself. /Fabric: Forming a dark-matter suit of armour over yourself, weightless and durable, seems like a good way to mitigate your natural squishiness. /Paper: Shaping the battlefield is the craft of a paper user, and using dark power to do the same could create a whole fighting realm of madness with lots of shadows for you to benefit from. /Network: The key to more detailed crafting of items using darkness lies here. /Grave: Lifesteal? Drawing on an opponent's life force when you damage them to heal for part of the damage you deal? /Gravity: Creating shadowy portals along the same lines as a gravity controller's wormholes! /Sound: Generate sound within the darkness you create, but not beyond it, and use this to your advantage! Make an attack sound like it's coming from one side when it's really from another, or just play the psychological fear up to 11! /Bone: The inside of your body is a dark place, so control that darkness to make your bones jet out in a sharpened form! Use the attack method of a bone controller. Self-damage still happens though. /Psionic: Inspire magically-induced fear with your darkness, which even normally fearless characters will not overcome. /Chocolate: Hmm, I wonder what Dark/Chocolate could be. HMMMMMMM. /Plant: Continuously absorb light from the battlefield into your body, making the fighting area darker and also giving you more shadows to work with. /Edge: I AM THE DARK LORD, I AM THE ULTIMATE ASSASSIN, NOTHIN PERSONEL KID. Control the edge of your darkness attacks for increased damage. /Friction: Continuously slow anyone in the darkness you create. None can escape the shadows... /Time: Some edgy stuff about harnessing the ancient darkness which preceded the Big Bang itself... /Oil: Advanced darkness crafting, creating physical items made of the lack of anything. Blood /Lightning: As you fall in battle, let electricity surge through to your heart, restarting it and resurrecting you with with low HP! Once per fight. /Fire: Increase the heat of your opponent's blood to critical levels, doing unavoidable damage to an opponent's internal organs! /Air: Force all of the oxygen from a body of spilled body to at once shoot out as a jet of pressurized air! /Water: Train your body to be able to use the oxygen from water and the blood's ability to use it, allowing you to breathe underwater! /Earth: You can force iron out of the haemoglobin in the blood, preventing the blood's ability to take in oxygen. Enemies will slowly begin to suffocate! /Light: According to the Church of the Flame, the blood is holy. Embrace this! /Dark: We know you can do some cool edgy unholy stuff here. Go crazy. /Poison: Manipulate the PH level of blood, making spilled blood acidic! Increased DoT with your blood attacks! /Sand: Briefly transform your body into pure blood! This can be an excellent way to avoid the damage of a big incoming attack. /Ink: Shape blood into your own minions like Ink would! The Blood is the source of life! /Fabric: Form blood over your body and solidify like a defensive suit for an extra layer of protection. /Paper: Learn from the masters of papercuts! Force blood directly out of the body from various places, leaving bleeding wounds from an unavoidable attack! /Network: Study the methods with which nanobots can repair damaged tissue, and perhaps replicate it with the control of blood to enhance your healing abilities. /Grave: Perhaps you can do your own basic-level summoning with a blood sacrifice... /Gravity: Control the blood in your own body to float around, letting you glide or even fly! /Sound: With a physical strike, send vibrations through the opponent's body which cause a disruption to the heart! /Bone: increase the amount of blood you can produce from your body to ridiculous proportions through increased efficiency in bone marrow. /Psionic: Forcing aneurysms is fun. /Chocolate: Absorb the blood sugar from your foe's spilled blood to give yourself a temporary speed boost! /Plant: Control chlorophyll, the "blood" of plants! This could be used to increase the potency of healing, or just deal with opposing plant controllers more effectively. /Edge: Increase the sharpness of your blood constructs to add more damage with their use! /Friction: Manipulate the friction of spilled blood - If you've covered the ground in it, you could make it too slippery to walk on, or cause so much resistance that enemies are slowed. /Time: Increase the speed of blood's functioning, giving you supernatural passive regenerative speed. /Oil: Follow in the footsteps of oil controllers and increase your versatility and capability in crafting items from blood! Poison /Lightning: Experiment with lightning's effect on the nervous system. Generate a formula harnessing it. Create poison which can paralyze (stun)! /Fire: Burn! BURN! Specialise into acids and bases for higher damage at the cost of less general utility. /Air: Oxygen poisoning manifests primarily by causing tinnitus and tunnel vision. While you don't have the precise control over oxygen an air controller might, you can certainly produce it. Keep your gas mask on, and you'll stay safe from its effects. (I would list direct control of your poison gas clouds here, but that's already a super basic poison ability that you could do regardless.) /Water: Learn to directly manipulate your liquid poisons and acids like a water user could with water! /Earth: Harvest toxic metals and incorporate them into your arsenal. /Light: Holy toxins aren't as paradoxical as you might think. In particular, holy energy promotes the growth of life. If you're trying to inflict diseases on an opponent, incorporating holiness into it can increase how quickly it manifests. /Dark: I'm sure you can think of some twisted effects, including curses, that you could inflict on someone if you're willing to delve into the darker arts. /Blood: Why not give yourself traces of a poison until you're immune, take it during battle, and have the poison manifest itself on-contact with an opponent who touches your spilled blood? This is obviously more effective if they attack in melee.